HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



35 



sand, while it .avoids the intermediate bargate. I am 

 inclined to think that these trees, the vvhitebeam and 

 beech therefore, are more influenced by drainage than 

 Ijy soil. The beds forming both the escarpments 

 having a sharp dip, a perfect drainage is secured. 

 This however is a mere surmise, as one would think 

 that the bargate stone with all its open joints would 

 furnish a tract equally well drained. Turning now to 

 the juniper (Junipcrus communis), I find that this 

 tree (excepting a few stunted specimens on the chalk) 

 appears to be confined to the ironsands of the Folke- 

 stone beds, and more than this I believe they only 

 grow where these beds lie rather thinly on the bar- 

 -gate, as at Munstead, and Shackleford. These beds, I 

 should observe, are very frequently false bedded, the 

 bed lines running at high angles, and are supposed by 

 ■some geologists to be of eolian origin. When there- 

 fore they rest on bargate beds, with its open joints, a 

 most perfect drainage is secured. Professor Wyville 

 Thompson mentions a species of juniper as growing 

 on eolian beds of modern date in the Bermudas. In 

 the Farnham area, where a large tract of the Folke- 

 stone beds occur, very few, if any junipers are to be 

 seen. Here, however, I believe the beds to have some 

 ■clayey sand belonging to the Sandgate beds inter- 

 vening between them and the bargate below, thus 

 rendering the drainage less perfect, and the same facts 

 I believe hold good with the Woolmer Forest district. 

 In conclusion it seems probable that some plants are 

 more influenced by the drainage of the soil in the 

 ;seIection of their habitat, than by its chemical 

 composition. 



I trust you may deem these suggestions worthy of 

 insertion in Science-Gossip. 



H. W. KiDD. 



P.S. — Since penning the foregoing, it has struck me 

 as worthy of remark, that the common elm which 

 abounds on the calcareous bargate series, and also on 

 the chalk without the weald, is absent alike from the 

 escarpment of the lower greensand and the escarp- 

 ment of the chalk. — H. W. Kidd. 



Dried Flowers with Colours.— I shall feel 

 A^ery thankful for a list of such ordinary garden or 

 greenhouse flowers as will retain their colour in a 

 <lried state. I specially desire blue and red, and 

 other bright colours, of form and size suitable for 

 mounting for Christmas cards and other decoration. 

 I understand there are many secrets in the success of 

 some in the drying of their flowers, and any hints 

 which will help me in preserving the natural tints, 

 -or at least sufficient brightness for my purpose, will 

 be most gratefully accepted. I should also be glad 

 of a list of wild flowers which retain a bright colour 

 in drying. Forget-me-not would be exceedingly 

 useful, but that it sadly fades after a short time. 

 — T. McGaitn. 



CHRISTMAS NOTES. 



THE weather this Christmas-tide has been un- 

 usually mild. In the course of a hasty stroll 

 or so at Great Marlow, Bucks, I observed the 

 following — 



1. Plants in flower : 



a. Plants which flower the whole season. 



Profusely : Lamitim. album, Senecio vulgaris (a), 

 ]'croiiica agrcstis var. poliia, Ulex EiwopCEjis ()3), 

 Lainium piirpureum, Stella ria media. 



h. Plants which do not as a rule flower the whole 

 season. 



Profusely : Galiuin saxatile, Capsella bursa-pasioris, 

 Stellaria graminea, Pimpiiiella saxifraga, Bellis 

 perennis, Viola tricolor (seen by a friend). 



Occasionally : Ramcnctdus repens (7), Scabiosa 

 arvensis, Geum tirbanum, ■ Veronica Ckamcedrys, 

 Erigeron acris. Taraxacum dcns-leonis, Senecio 

 sylvaticus, Heraclcum sphondylium, Crepis virens. 



Singly : Rubjis fniticosns var. carpinifolius (5). 



2. Plants leafing profusely : 



a. Last season's stems (perennials) — Lonicera 

 periclymcnum (e), Galium molhigo, Asperula odorata. 



b. New stems (annuals) — Fragi-aria vesca, Galitttit 

 aparine. 



3. Birds : Troglodytes vulgaris, Parus major. 

 Passer domesticus. Accentor modularis, Friugilla 

 Calebs, Pyrrhula vulgaris, Motacilla alba, Vanellus 

 cristatus, Corvus frugilegus, Turdus musictts, Turdus 

 vurula, Picus viridis (seen by a friend). 



4. Other signs of activity : 



Culex pipiens. Ichneumon sp., Liinax cinerens. 



A beetle, a spider, a few diptera, and a lepidop- 

 terous larva on food-plant. 



(a) Amongst other localities, on the top of a brick 

 wall 8 feet high. 



(;3) Occurs on Marlow Common, a clay-capped 

 elevation, reappearing in a sandy cutting between 

 Cookham and Maidenhead. Similarly with Tana^ 

 cetum vulgare and Lychnis diurna (not, however, 

 now in flower), which reappear to the east of Burn- 

 ham Beeches. None of these spp. are to be found on 

 chalk itself, on which this district is mainly situate. 



(7) 4-sepalled, 6-petalIed. 



(5) This flowering stem bore two monstrous leaf- 

 forms out| of three, in one the lateral pinna: being 

 represented merely by obscure lobes adherent to the 

 terminal, and in the other one lateral pinna coales- 

 cing with the terminal, exhibiting a deep incision on 

 its margin. 



(e). On one stem, where a last season's leaf was 

 still attached, the development of the new bud in 

 that spot was arrested. The opposite bud, however, 

 sprouted undiminished. 



From (7) (5) and (e) it would almost appear that 

 in abnormal seasons of development plants have a 

 tendency to monstrous growth. I append a sketch 

 or two. E. G. Harmer. 



